Wrong Way Round The World

The Wrong Way Round (13th February 2009)

Two Weeks To Go
I have put the house with an estate agent to find tenants whilst I’m away and finally completed all the work to the house. Strangely there doesn’t appear much to do as far as organising the trip goes. The bike and a separate box containing packed panniers, motorcycle clothing and the screen and mirrors removed from the bike for shipping are on there way to Miami by ship. They are scheduled to arrive on 22nd March 2009 and I have my flight booked for 30th March 2009.

I only intended to spend a couple of days in Miami to get the bike from customs but my bike literally ‘missed the boat‘. It was rejected at the docks because the case it was in wasn’t strong enough. The shipper had to remake the box and put it on the next ship a fortnight later. This wouldn’t have been so bad if they had told me early enough to change my flight but I only found out a couple of days before I was due to leave. Instead of arriving eight days after the bike (to allow for any possible delays) I arrived six days before the second ship was due to dock.

I was looking forward to seeing Savannah and Charleston, two of the centres of the deep south. The weather has been hot a dry except for a couple of hours whilst walking around St. Augustine when there was a thunder storm.

I had spent hours studying maps looking for a good route avoiding the larger towns from Front Royal the northern end of Skyline Drive to Princeton New Jersey. My Mother’s birthday was coming up and my brother Keith was flying from Australia to England for the celebrations. I could hardly not ‘nip across the pond’ if Keith was travelling all the way from Australia. Foolishly I booked a flight from JFK, New York. In hindsight a smaller airport would have been easier. I had met Hank Farber at the Iron Horse Motorcycle Lodge and Campground in North Carolina.

Continuing north on the Blue Ridge Parkway the rear sprocket died. I had needed to tighten the chain regularly and noticed some wear on the sprocket but hoped it would last until the next service in 3000 miles time. 60 miles later the teeth had half worn away. My guess is that the case hardened outer skin had worn then the sprocket failed rapidly. The bike only has 8800 miles on it, a bit early for the sprocket to fail I would have thought. If I had been in Europe the repair would be covered under extended warranty but the warranty isn’t valid or transferable to the USA.

Having had a three week holiday in the UK for my mothers birthday, it’s back to the ‘day job’ of riding my BMW F650GS towards Canada. Life is tough at times!

East Fortune, Scotland

Town Moor, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England

I had the whole of Mashamoque campsite to myself in Connecticut on the way to Cape Cod.

Mashamoque State Park Camp Swimming Pool - Connecticut

It’s good to be in a county that has money with the Queen’s face on it again!

Canada is HUGE. Lying in my tent playing with the GPS as you do, I discovered my house in Newcastle, England was 2611 miles away. The Alaskan border was 3162 miles away in a straight line and 4849 miles by the shortest road route.

From Nova Scotia I finally started heading west stopping at the C’mon Hostel in Moncton again then on to Campbellton, New Brunswick. Cambellton is a starting point for the Gaspesie scenic route 132. A circular route following the coast around the Gaspesie peninsular then back through the mountains. I was planning to do the coastal part of the route then continue west for points unknown.

I crossed the border into Saskatchewan at Flin Flon. This mining town was established by the Hudson Bay Company who asked the residents what they wanted the town to be called. When no reply came a message was sent to the residents stating that unless they responded and chose a name it would be called after the fictional character Flin Flon. This was probably said in jest but when the residents failed to come up with a name the Hudson Bay Company registered the town as Flin Flon.

I had intended to skirt round the north of Winnipeg to camp on the west side of Lake Winnipeg but more rain was forecast so I headed for Winnipeg and stayed in a hostel. Winnipeg was the largest town I had ridden through since starting the trip. The Ice Hockey Arena takes pride of place in the centre of town.

Daily mileage has increased now that I’m in semi wilderness. The aim is to cross Canada keeping to the most northerly roads available. The activities on offer are primarily, fishing, hunting and boating. Messing about in boats would be nice if the opportunity arose but I’m not keen on fishing and wouldn’t know one end of a gun from the other if it hadn’t been for Hollywood. The scenery, varied roads and virtually no traffic make for good biking though.

Leaving Meadow Lake Provincial Park, Saskatchewan on a 70 mile stretch of dirt road I saw five deer, a common sight in these parts. The Moose, Elk and Bears are much harder to spot. It was a warm day but the tent and tarpaulin were damp from the morning dew so I stopped to dry them off on the grass by a side road after a couple of hours riding.

Having decided to head to Petrolia, California for the Horizons Unlimited gathering on 24th to 27th September 2009 and postpone winter accommodation hunting in Alberta I headed south from Waterton Lake National Park in Alberta for Montana.

I was lucky enough to get the position of caretaker of the summer pasture and cabins of a cattle ranch in Montana for the coming winter. This provides me with the base to experience the North American winter I wanted along with the interesting challenges of adapting to life on a western ranch for someone from the suburbs of Newcastle, England like me.

Montana Ranch Cabin - My Winter Home

November started snow free and a bit warmer than most of October although hardly an Indian summer. I spent a day at the main ranch watching the weaning. A bunch of cattle were rounded up with the aid of ATVs then the calves were separated. The calves were branded, vaccinated and if necessary de-horned. Finally, never to meet again, the calves were turned out into one pasture while their mothers were put into another. Not a good day for the calves!

The first seriously cold weather of the winter (unless your Canadian, they operate on a superhero scale of coldness) arrived with several days of -26C (-15F). I went for a two hour walk in bright sunshine at this temperature and stayed warm thanks to the multi layered clothing I had on. However on taking both pairs of gloves off my fingers went numb in seconds.

Snowy Montana Ranch

Early February saw me researching my options following the rejection of my USA visa extension application. Without knowing it I had already been an illegal alien for five weeks before receiving the rejection letter (See Montana Ranch January 2010 blog entry). I couldn’t find a number to speak to anyone at the USA Dept. of Homeland Security, the Dept. that had turned down my visa extension application. I could however book an appointment at their local office in Helena, Montana on the internet.